The Los Angeles-based American Film Institute is committed to promoting and preserving the craft of film and filmmaking. They published a series dubbed “AFI’s 10 Top 10” in 2008 in which they listed the top 10 films in each genre. Even if 1930s gangster dramas are out of date today, they had a profound and visible impact on the more recent gangster movies that made the list. Below is the list of Best Gangster Movies, According to American Film Institute, check out.
1. The Godfather (1972)
Director- Francis Ford Coppola
The ailing don of the Corleone Mafia Family is Vito Corleone. Michael, his youngest son, arrived home from the war in time to witness Connie Corleone’s nuptials to Carlo Rizzi. Michael only wants to lead a normal life despite the fact that his entire family gets implicate in the Mafia. Virgil Sollozzo, a drug dealer, is looking for Mafia groups to provide him with protection in exchange for a cut of the proceeds from the sale of drugs.
He talks to Don Corleone about it, but the Don rejects the offer because he has a moral objection to heroin use, much to the dismay of the Don’s attorney Tom Hagen. Sollozzo orders several of his hit men to shoot the Don down because this displeases him. The Corleone family is torn apart as a result of the Don narrowly making it out alive. This motivates his son Michael to start a bloody mob war against Sollozzo.
2. Goodfellas (1990)
Director- Martin Scorsese
In this crime biography of wiseguy Henry Hill, the poor, blue-collar aspect of the New York Italian mafia gets depict. In-depth examination of the customs and practises of organise crime is done in the film. As the main character progresses from a muscular young petty criminal to a professional burglar to a middle-aged cocaine addict and dealer. This true story accurately tackles the fundamental, blue-collar element of the mafia by following the rise and fall of Hill and his two equivalents, the slick jack-of-all-trades criminal Jimmy Conway and the hulking, scary Tommy DeVito.
3. The Godfather: Part II (1974)
Director- Francis Ford Coppola
While his son Don Michael Corleone falls victim to power, greed, and ruthlessness for the sake of pride and keeping the Corleone family together. The early 20th century rise of Vito Corleone from a small-time crook to the most powerful don in New York City is depict.
Usually, maintaining same fandom as the original is very hard. However, Francis Ford Coppola’s sequel to the greatest movie of all time, The Godfather has kept with audience’s expectation hence, bagging third rank on being Best Gangster Movies, According to American Film Institute.
4. White Heat (1949)
Director- Raoul Walsh
The Oedipus complex-afflicted psychopath criminal Arthur “Cody” Jarrett and his crew loot a train of its wealth while killing four passengers. He confesses to a different crime in another state in order to escape the gas chamber, and he receives a two-year prison term. Cody shares a cell with the covert operative Hank Fallon while he pretends to be Vic Pardo as he searches for the location of the money. When Cody’s mother is slain, he breaks out of jail with Vic and three other criminals in order to find the murderer. He regards Vic as his little brother and gets deceived during a secure heist at a chemical company.
5. Bonnie And Clyde (1967)
Director- Arthur Penn
Bonnie Parker wants a change in her life since she is tired of it. She gets her chance when she runs into charming young Clyde Barrow, a vagrant. Clyde envisions a life of crime as a way to escape the Depression’s burdens. The two fall in love and start a criminal spree that spans Texas and Oklahoma. They successfully rob small banks with style, quickly gaining notoriety across the nation as minor celebrities. Since Bonnie and Clyde are doing what no one else has the guts to do, their victims are happy to have been held up. The two are terrible bank robbers in the eyes of the law, deserving to be shot dead right then and then.
6. Scarface (1932)
Director- Howard Hawks
Dedicated to succeeding in the Chicago underworld, Tony Camonte is a vicious and ambitious mobster. Tony is elevated to being Johnny Lovo’s number 2 after killing his boss Big Louie on the mobster’s behalf in the South Side. Tony is cautioned by him to avoid North Side boss O’Hara, though. Particularly for his sister Cesca, Tony is very protective of his family. When it comes to eliminating the opposition, Tony isn’t exactly subtle. He even snatches Lovo’s girlfriend after developing feelings for her. Eventually, he forces Lovo to leave and engages the North side crowd. But when he discovers his best buddy Guino Rinaldo chatting with his sister in her apartment, it’s the beginning of the end.
7. Pulp Fiction (1994)
Director- Quentin Tarantino
Hitmen Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield have a tendency for philosophising. Their story is intertwined with those of their boss, gangster Marsellus Wallace, his actress wife, Mia, failing boxer Butch Coolidge, master fixer Winston Wolfe, and a wary pair of armed robbers known only as “Pumpkin” and “Honey Bunny” in this ultra-hip, multi-strand crime film.
8. The Public Enemy (1931)
Director- William A. Wellman
Tom Powers and Matt Doyle, two friends, start out a life of crime at a young age. For Putty Nose, the only thing they do at first is shoplift, stealing anything they can. When they become involved in a plot to rob a bank but the job goes wrong and a policeman is killed, they advance from small-time theft to major criminality. As it turns out, Tom and Matt are alone. Mike, Tom’s brother, enlists in the Marines when the United States enters World War I, leaving Tom at home to care for their ageing mother. Upon the onset of Prohibition, when they begin working for the mobsters Paddy Ryan and Nails Nathan, they really start to make a lot of money. Rival mobsters attempt to take over Nathan’s companies when he is killed in a horseback riding accident, which sparks a gang war.
9. Little Caeser (1931)
Director- Mervyn LeRoy
Rico is a low-level criminal who robs petrol stations of whatever he can get away with. He travels to the east and joins Sam Vettori’s mob. Alvin McClure, the newly appointed crime commissioner, is killed during a robbery on New Year’s Eve at Little Arnie Lorch’s casino. Joe Massara, a close buddy of Rico’s who works as a professional dancer at the club and serves as the gang’s watchman, wants to leave the organisation. Due to his ambition, Rico eventually takes control of Vettori’s gang and advances to the next level, pushing Diamond Pete Montana aside. Olga determines that there is only one way out for them when he tells Joe to leave his girlfriend Olga and rejoin the gang.
10. Scarface (1983)
Director- Brian De Palma
After Fidel Castro’s huge expulsion of the Marielitos, Tony “Scarface” Montana, a Cuban immigrant and ex-convict, finds himself on the sunny boulevards of President Jimmy Carter’s Miami, starving for a substantial slice of the exhilarating American Dream. Tony’s spectacular climb in the city’s brutal but profitable cocaine scene will begin there, where a bloody drug deal will pave the path for him to go from a ravenous dreamer to an all-powerful mega-drug lord. Now, the cocaine king will shoot his bloodthirsty Colt AR-15 at anyone who tries to get in his way.
We did some digging around, and it turns out you love gangster movies. And who can blame you? We don’t know about you, but we have an awesome time every time we watch one.
